DPIC Podcasts
Items: 41 — 50
Discussions With DPIC

Junk Science and Wrongful Convictions: James Rytting Discusses the Case of Larry Swearingen
Published: Oct 03, 2019
James Rytting, an attorney who represented Texas prisoner Larry Swearingen, describes the junk science used to convict his client. Swearingen was executed on August 21, 2019, after multiple courts declined to consider new evidence that revealed flaws in the forensic evidence presented at trial. Rytting also explains how Swearingen’s case highlights flaws that contribute to wrongful convictions throughout the criminal justice system: unscientific analysis of forensic evidence, lack of scientific training for lawyers and judges, and an appellate system that values finality over fairness.
Discussions With DPIC

Interview with Clemency filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu
Published: Aug 27, 2019
Writer/director Chinonye Chukwu speaks with DPIC Senior Director of Research and Special Projects Ngozi Ndulue about her award-winning new film, Clemency. Chukwu discusses her inspiration for the story, the years-long process of research and immersion that helped her shape the narrative, and her hopes for how this film will be received.
Discussions With DPIC

Rep. Renny Cushing on Empowering Crime Survivors and Repealing New Hampshire’s Death Penalty
Published: Jul 03, 2019
In the latest episode of Discussions with DPIC, New Hampshire State Representative Renny Cushing talks with DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham about the life-altering experience of having a close family member murdered and his journey from being a murder-family survivor to spearheading New Hampshire’s recent repeal of the death penalty. Cushing — whose father and brother-in-law were killed in separate incidents — discusses his ongoing efforts to empower crime survivors and his role working to bring together a broad coalition of people from across the political spectrum and with a variety of life experiences…
Discussions With DPIC

Interview with Trial By Fire Director Edward Zwick
Published: May 17, 2019
Emmy- and Oscar-winner Edward Zwick speaks about his latest film, Trial By Fire, in the latest episode of Discussions with DPIC. Zwick produced and directed Trial By Fire, which tells the story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was convicted and sentence to death in 1992 for the alleged arson homicide of his three children. Arson investigators who testified against him used flawed methods, and a jailhouse informant received undisclosed incentives from prosecutors in exchange for his testimony that Willingham had confessed to him, but Willingham was executed in 2004. Willingham’s…
Discussions With DPIC

The Effect of Race on Sentencing Decisions in Washington
Published: Mar 14, 2019
In the latest episode of Discussions with DPIC, Dr. Katherine Beckett (pictured, left) and Dr. Heather Evans (pictured, right), authors of “The Role of Race in Washington State Capital Sentencing: 1981 – 2014,” discuss their research and its impact on the Washington Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the state’s death penalty. Their study was heavily cited by the court in State v. Gregory, the October 2018 decision that found Washington’s death penalty violated the state constitution because it was “imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.” The researchers described the…
Discussions With DPIC

Behind the Curtain
Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States
Published: Feb 08, 2019
Robin Konrad, former DPIC Director of Research and Special Projects, joins Executive Director Robert Dunham and current Director of Research and Special Projects Ngozi Ndulue to discuss DPIC’s November 2018 report, Behind the Curtain: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States. Konrad, the lead author of the report, gives an overview of the recent expansion of secrecy in the use of the death penalty. She explains the ubiquity of secrecy policies, saying “everybody has some type of secrecy provision” related to the sources of execution drugs or the…
Discussions With DPIC

Year End Report 2018
Published: Dec 21, 2018
Members of the DPIC staff discuss key themes from the 2018 Year End Report in the latest episode of Discussions with DPIC. Robert Dunham, Ngozi Ndulue, and Anne Holsinger delve into the major death-penalty trends and news items of the year, including the “extended trend” of generational lows in death sentencing and executions, election results that indicate the decline will likely continue, and the possible impact of Pope Francis’s change to Catholic teaching on capital punishment. They explore the reasons for reduced death-penalty usage, highlighting the stories of people who…
Discussions With DPIC

The New Catholic Teaching on the Death Penalty and Human Dignity
A Conversation with Cardinal Blase Cupich
Published: Dec 01, 2018
Cardinal Blase Cupich, the ninth Bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, speaks with DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham about the implications of the new Catholic Catechism promulgated by Pope Francis, which deemed the death penalty “inadmissible” in all cases and committed the Church to working to abolish capital punishment in the United States and worldwide. Saying “human dignity is at center of all we say and do,” Cardinal Cupich explains how the Church’s commitment to action on the death penalty fits into its broader teachings about social justice and the…
Discussions With DPIC

Professor Bharat Malkani Explores the Relationship Between Slavery and Slavery-Abolition Strategies and the Modern U.S. Death Penalty
Published: Oct 25, 2018
Bharat Malkani, senior lecturer in the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom and author of the 2018 book Slavery and the Death Penalty: A Study in Abolition, speaks with DPIC’s executive director Robert Dunham and Ngozi Ndulue, DPIC’s Director of Research and Special Projects, about the historical links between slavery, lynching, Jim Crow and the death penalty and the lessons modern opponents of capital punishment can learn from the strategies employed by slavery abolitionists. Malkani explores the parallels between the institutional approaches of conservative…
Discussions With DPIC

Professor Keelah Williams Explains Research Linking “Resource Scarcity” to Support for the Death Penalty
Published: Sep 07, 2018
Keelah Williams, assistant professor of psychology at Hamilton College in New York, speaks with DPIC executive director Robert Dunham about her research on the death penalty and resource scarcity — a concept from evolutionary psychology that studies how people react to social conditions in an environment with limited resources.